1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of plumbing apparatus. Particularly, the invention relates to plumbing apparatus designed and made for use with water. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to plumbing fittings configured for solvent bonding with plastic piping to form a water circulation system. The plumbing apparatus is particularly suited to use in connection with a water circulation system of a swimming pool, hot tub, or spa, for example. One embodiment of the present invention provides a plumbing fitting have an advantageously short assembled length with other fittings and pipe.
2. Related Technology
It is conventional in spas and hot tubs to have a pump which draws water from the spa, circulates this water through a heater, and delivers the heated water back to the spa. Particularly at the point or points of introduction of the heated water back into the spa, it is conventional to provide one or more water-powered aspirators. An aspirator of this type is commonly referred to as an "air jet" or a "bubble jet", or just as a "jet", and functions to ingest ambient air. The heated water and air are introduced together into the spa in order to make the spa bubbly. Commonly, the "jet" of bubbly water is introduced into the spa via a pipe stub ending flush with a side wall of the spa. Alternatively, the "jet" is introduced into the spa water via an "eye ball" fitting set into the side wall of the spa. Such "eye ball" fittings allow the jet of water and air to be adjusted to best suit the wishes of the users of the spa, dependent upon the number of people using the spa and the seating locations within the spa water, for example.
In spas which share a water supply with and are adjacent to a pool, it is conventional to have a wall between and common to both the pool and the spa. Such a common shared wall is generally referred to as a "dam wall." The dam wall of a pool/spa is generally only about six inches thick in order to utilize the generally available size of decorative tile. In such cases, the generally available plumbing fittings make it very difficult or impossible to install bubble jets in the dam wall. In order to allow the installation of bubble jets in the dam wall, some pool/spa installations undesirably utilize a dam wall that is thicker than six inches. In such cases, the dam wall may be as thick as nine inches or even twelve inches. Such a thick dam wall necessitates an increase in the materials used to construct the pool/spa, and increases the costs of materials and construction.
It is also conventional to utilize a fitting referred to as a "pipe extender" in order to allow a plastic pipe to be extended, or to be joined to a fitting. The generally available pipe extender is a plastic tubular structure providing a spigot at each of its opposite ends. That is, the pipe extender has a spigot at one end which is to be solvent welded within the end of a plastic pipe. At its other end, the generally available pipe extender includes a spigot section of larger diameter which has the same outside diameter as the plastic pipe. This section of larger diameter forms another spigot which can be solvent welded directly into the socket of a pipe fitting. However, in order to use this pipe extender to actually extend a pipe, a coupling is required. The conventional pipe extender will not directly join two sections of pipe.